GfK report: Radio listening strong over summer

A new report released by radio audience measurement company GfK, shows metropolitan and regional radio continues to be the most engaging medium with consumers during the summer months, with nearly nine out of 10 (86%) respondents indicating they listen to more radio in summer.

Despite regular radio on-air teams taking a break over the Christmas and New Year period, the GfK Radio Insights report, released by Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), shows radio in both metropolitan and regional areas is reaching a holiday audience that has more time to listen with 91% of listeners agreeing that radio is a great source of information in summer.

Many Australians traditionally take a break over the summer period and the data shows 62% of listeners listen to local radio stations even when away from home at their holiday destination.

Younger audiences show high levels of engagement even over summer with 28% of 10- to 24-year-olds saying they listen to more radio in summer compared to the rest of the year and 79% of younger listeners agreeing they are more likely to listen to media such as radio over summer than watch media.

Joan Warner, chief executive of CRA, said: “The GfK Summer Listening Insights report will be undertaken each year and will prove to be an important tool for our sales teams around the country, indicating while some other forms of media consumption decline over the summer, radio remains popular in metropolitan and regional Australia.”

Radio’s multiplatform strategy continues to attract a younger audience with engagement across a radio station’s website and social media extremely high the younger age groups.

• 64% engage with a radio social media page
• 55% engage with a radio station website
• 39% phone a radio station

The GfK Radio Insights reports are a rebrand of the AudienScope studies, pioneering national online quarterly surveys of radio listening behaviour. The Summer Listening Insights online survey was conducted between 19 January and 31 January 2017.

GfK Radio Insights provides context and additional perspective to the regular Australian radio ratings surveys. The research involves 5,000 online respondents per year.

Dr Morten Boyer, General Manager of GfK Media, said: “This GfK Radio Insights study showcases the versatility of radio. In summer, people spend more time outside and away from work, and radio is right there alongside them: informing, entertaining, and engaging the listener. GfK’s holistic approach to radio audience measurement was pioneered in Australia together with CRA and it has attracted a lot of interest from around the world.With the rebranding of these reports to ‘GfK Radio Insights’ we can launch the same concept internationally, which has already begun in several markets.”

The first of eight metropolitan radio surveys for 2017 will be released by GfK on Tuesday March 14, 2017.